Anna recalled Mammi Eliza’s broken ankle a couple years after Dawdi passed away. “You’re schmaert not to take that path, Sadie.”

“Jah, the path of least resistance is best for these aging bones.”

Anna thought of Sadie’s sister Eva and the fall that had broken her hip, leading to the surgery that had left her so confused. “You’ve very wise,” she agreed.

Anna’s first impression of Sadie’s sister Eva had been that the older woman seemed more wakeful and alert than Mammi Eliza typically was lately. Eva also stared at Anna quite a lot, a puzzled smile on her face, as though trying to place her. And when Sadie introduced Anna as Rachel Slaubaugh Beachy’s youngest daughter, Eva had quietly nodded her head as if she understood.

Later, when Anna and Sadie returned from their visit, Anna went to her room and studied the list of sights the information center had given her to work from, as well as the county map. She circled the Amish schools in Strasburg, Paradise, and Leacock, intending to drive to see all of them. She had told Sadie she wouldn’t be back for the noon meal, but Sadie had insisted on making a ham, cheese, and lettuce sandwich for her, also packing plastic bags of carrots and celery, and a thermos of cold lemonade.

“I owe you,” Anna said, adjourning to the kitchen and thanking Sadie for her thoughtfulness. Then, lunch bag in hand, she headed off to check out the spots she’d marked on the map. This way, she could get some personal experience and better determine how much time to plan for each location.

At the one-room Amish school on Route 741 and Belmont Road, Anna discreetly took pictures of the exterior and the playground from her car, then drove on to do the same at the other Amish schools and even cemeteries in those areas. Tomorrow, she would travel to other nearby townships and burgs populated with Amish folk.

Anna arrived back to the Flauds’ well before supper and with time to help Sadie by going out to cut leaf lettuce from the small salad garden. As she headed indoors to wash the lettuce, she could hear Glen and Luke’s free-range turkeys gobbling and clucking while meandering through the weeds in the pasture over yonder, foraging for seeds and insects. Once the fresh lettuce was clean, she tore it into bite-size pieces to use for the individual salad plates of lettuce, cottage cheese, and pear halves from one of the many quart jars in Sadie’s large pantry.

Meanwhile, Sadie’s meatloaf and her scalloped potatoes were baking in the oven, filling the kitchen with wonderful aromas. Sadie turned down the gas under the pot of new snap peas from the garden and went to get some butter for the table.